


How They Saw Him

by mchnclbrd



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Autistic Peter Parker, Non-Graphic Violence, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Self-Harm, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2020-12-22 18:29:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21081116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mchnclbrd/pseuds/mchnclbrd
Summary: All of the Avengers could see him- he wasn't invisible.  But nobody saw through the persona he had created, saw into who he really was.Or, a story of how the Avengers saw him, one by one, until he was ready to show them himself.





	1. Tony Stark

“FIFTEEN?!?!” Pepper shouted, obviously furious with Tony. She had been yelling for the last two and a half hours, out of her mind with anger and confusion at how her boyfriend could do something as stupid as taking a literal child to Germany to fight the Avengers. “You took a FIFTEEN year old to GERMANY to fight BUCKY FUCKING BARNES?”

“In my defense,” Tony started as Pepper continued to glare at him, “I didn’t know that Barnes would be there.” Tony smirked and held up his hands in surrender as Pepper screamed and stormed out of the room. “She’s someone else’s problem now,” he thought to himself.

Tony sat down and began to busy himself with repairs to the suit and adjustments to Rhodey’s prosthetics. Looking over the damage, he was prompted with a sudden curiosity. “Hey Fri?”

“At your service, sir.”

“Bring up the body scan for the kid.” Tony sat in silence for a moment, chewing on his pen as he waited for FRIDAY to load the data.

“It seems as though Mr. Parker has suffered several bruises, most cosmetic with a few deep tissue and bone injuries and one bruised rib, however, his advanced healing factor is already fixing his body for him.” Tony nodded thoughtfully.

“Is that everything?” he asked, looking up at the ceiling as if his assistant had a face.

“Well, Mr. Parker does seem to have several scars on his wrists and thighs, though due to the fact that he heals quicker than the average teenager, it is hard to tell which are old and which are new.” Tony stopped at this fact, quickly wheeling over to the screen in the lab.

“Bring up the scan visuals.” The screen came to life as Peter’s body scan popped up on the screen, and Tony’s worst fears were confirmed. The scars were too even, too straight to be accidental. Maybe one or two of them would have been believable, but the sheer volume was completely outrageous. “Do we have any idea how old they could be?”

“The oldest I can read is 2 years old, however, some scars could be far newer than that, as a cut can heal and scar on Mr. Parker’s body in a matter of hours, a day at most.” Tony inhaled sharply, his heart sinking.

xxxxxxXXXXXXxxxxxx

The next week, Peter and Tony were sat in the lab together, just like they were every Friday. To keep the pretense of an internship, Peter had to be at the tower on a somewhat regular schedule, just like an employee would be.

After about a thirty minute period of awkward silence, Tony finally spoke. “Hey kid, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

Peter froze for a second. “Umm… yeah?” he mumbled out, burying his face in his work.

“So, is there anything you want to talk to me about?”

“No!” Peter snapped suddenly, causing Tony to roll back in surprise. “I mean- I’m sorry Mr. Stark I just- I’m fine really- I don’t really want to talk to you about anything sir- not that I don’t want to talk to you- I just-”

“Jesus kid, relax,” Tony interjected, finally saving the poor kid. “It was just a question. You’re okay.” Peter exhaled and apologized again before going silent, returning the lab to the state it was before.

After Peter went home that night, Tony spent hours reading up on how to approach someone who you think is hurting themselves. When his eyes burned, he knocked back another cup of coffee and whisked himself away to his lab, intent on wiring something into the kid’s suit to make sure he didn’t hurt himself again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony goes to Bruce for advice. Bruce knows how to help, but it isn't his place to say.

“‘Sup, motherfucker?” Tony said, slamming his coffee mug on the table as he breezed into Bruce’s lab. The doctor turned around slowly in his chair, glaring at Tony.

“What do you think is up? I’m working, as usual, and you just storm in, as-” Bruce stopped abruptly, looking at Tony. “Tony, you look like shit!” He clearly hadn’t slept in at least three days, and his eyes were bloodshot from the constant stream of caffeine running through his veins.

“Thanks, love,” Tony commented sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he sat down across from Bruce.

“What’s going on? I thought we talked about this- you aren’t allowed to go multiple days without sleeping, it’s just not healthy! Your suit is fine, I’m sure Rhodey understands that making the prosthetics-”

“It’s the kid,” Tony said quietly, interrupting Bruce’s angry rambling. 

“The kid?” 

“Spider-baby, whatever his name is.” Bruce rolled his eyes- he knew that Tony knew Peter’s name. 

“What’s wrong with the kid?”

“He’s hurting himself.” Bruce sucked in a breath as he tried his best to absorb the information. 

“Who else knows?”

“FRIDAY, if she counts. Besides that, just you and I.” 

“Have you thought about talking to his aunt?”

“Not a chance in hell!” Tony snapped, causing Bruce to put his hands up in surrender. “At least, not until we have a shit ton more information.” Bruce nodded.

“So, what do we do?”   
“I’ve been trying to create something that will prevent him from hurting himself for the next version of his suit, but I can’t figure out how to prevent him from hurting himself when he’s not wearing the suit.” 

“Tony, I don’t think you can.” He looked at Bruce in confusion, wordlessly asking for more information. “I don’t think this is something that you can solve with engineering, or science.”

“But science can give you the answer to everything! That’s what we learned in class, at least.” Bruce chuckled and rolled his eyes. 

“That’s a fallacy, my friend. You have to talk to him. He’s not going to get better unless he knows that someone cares about him.”

“I very well can’t just say ‘hey Pete, stop fucking slicing your arm open!’” Bruce rolled his eyes.

“Think about when you were that age. Think about how someone would talk to you, and then do the same. It’s really not that hard.”

xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx

That night, Bruce sat on the edge of his bed and rolled up his sleeves, staring at the expanse of scars that covered them. Each set of scars had their own story- first, when he was a teenager and was fed up with the world, and then, one for every time he became the Hulk, and then one for every death he caused while he was the Hulk. That set was the largest- hundreds of scars littered his body, as once he ran out of room on his wrist, he moved elsewhere. He sighed, rolling down his sleeves, and crawled into bed, turning off the lights.


	3. Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton

When Natasha was just a small child, her life was ripped away from her. Madame B whisked her away to the Red Room, and she became the pride and joy of Soviet Russia. Clint rescued her, and it took her forever to adjust.

Yeah, she had her fair share of scars- some from battle, some self-inflicted. But she was better now, and she knew what it was like to completely fall apart. Which is why when she met the spider child, she knew that something was wrong with him.

He was completely shattered inside, and she didn’t know why. She knew Tony knew- he tries so hard to act like he doesn’t care, it doesn’t even occur to him that it might show that he does care. Without any biological children of his own, Tony tended to throw himself into whatever child crossed his path- especially Harley and Peter. Even though he hadn’t seen Harley in years, she knew that Tony still checked up on him from time to time. 

A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts. She looked up and Clint hesitated, wondering if he should even try to approach her. Natasha reached to scratch her nose and realized that she had been crying over the kid, something she hadn’t even been aware of doing. She never cried. Widows never cry, she heard Madame saying in the background of her thoughts, though she quickly shooed the thoughts from her mind and gave Clint a small smile.

“Were you thinking about the Red Room again?” he asked, approaching the bed slowly in case Natasha decided to charge at him with whatever knife she surely had under her pillow. She shook her head, allowing Clint to embrace her softly.

“It’s the kid,” she said in a small voice. 

“Peter?” Natasha nodded in response.

“I think he’s falling apart.”

xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx

About a week later, Peter arrived at the Tower for his weekly “internship,” which was really more just Tony fucking around with Peter in the lab. However, Peter found the elevator stopping on the communal floor rather than on Tony’s floor like it usually did.

“Hey Fri, what’s going on?” he asked, looking around in confusion.

“Ms. Romanoff requested to speak to you before you go to work with Mr. Stark. She’s in the kitchen.” Peter walked out of the elevator slowly and hesitated in the doorway of a kitchen, seeing an eerily calm Natasha. 

“Hey Peter, come here for a sec,” she called out to him, waving him to the island in the kitchen. He slowly pulled out a stool to sit down, ready to bolt as Nat slid a cup of tea over to him, so hot that he could see the steam rising off of the liquid as he lifted it to take a sip.

“What’s going on?” he asked after he swallowed, wincing at the temperature but taking another sip nonetheless. Natasha set her own mug- a red one of course- down in front of her and clasped her hands together.

“Peter, we’re worried about you,” she said, taking a deep breath to prepare for the barrage of yelling that was sure to follow.  
“Who’s we?” Peter asked, fighting to stay calm.

“Clint and I mainly, but I know that Tony’s worried too.” Peter stood up angrily.

“Well, thanks for the concern, but I’m fine.” He turned to walk away before he was stopped by Clint barring the door.

“If you’re fine, then roll up your sleeves.” Peter froze, turning to face Natasha slowly.

“What?”

“Prove it. Show me your wrists.” Peter shook his head, angry tears streaming down his face.

“I don’t have to prove shit,” he snapped, finally pushing past Clint and into the elevator, demanding that FRIDAY take him downstairs so he could go home. Clint looked at Nat sorrowfully, and Nat shook her head.

“Don’t worry,” she said, already scheming. “This isn’t over.”

“It seems like it’s over though, Nat.”

“If I can’t help him, someone can.”


	4. Steve Rogers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve tries to get through to Peter.

As it turned out, that person was Steve Rogers.

Because of course it was Steve that caught the kid sitting on a rooftop, staring at the city below. It just so happened that Tony was in India and left him in charge of the kid for a few days (it wasn’t like Tony wasn’t looking in on him at all hours of every day though). It just so happened that Natasha tipped Steve off to something a little fishy going on.

“Hey Queens, what’s going on?” he asked, careful not to startle the kid. Peter jumped anyways, nearly falling off the edge of the rooftop. Steve grabbed his arm and hauled him back, away from the dropoff of the building.

“Sorry Mr. Captain America. Just lost in thought I guess.” Peter sat back down on the rooftop, crossing his legs.

“Mind to tell me what’s going on in that superhero brain of yours?” Something inside Peter snapped upon hearing those words, and he just broke down, falling apart in front of the Captain. “Hey, kid, what’s going on?”

“I just- I can’t- I-” Peter tried to gasp out a coherent sentence between sobs, but he couldn’t get there. Steve pulled him into a hug, and he buried his head in Steve’s shoulder, sobbing. Unsure of what to do, Steve pressed the emergency call button on his suit, sending a message straight to Tony. 

“I just called Tony, he’s gonna call back in a second, do you want to talk to him?” Peter snapped his head up and shook it wildly.

“Please don’t tell Mr. Stark, he’ll kill me, he’ll never let me-”

“I don’t need an explanation, kid, I just needed an answer.” Steve had barely finished talking before his phone rang. “I’m gonna go over there and take this call, okay? Don’t move.”

As soon as Steve picked up the phone, Tony began yelling.

“I’m packing a suitcase right now, what’s wrong with my- I mean the kid, what’s wrong with the kid, is he dead-”  
“Relax, Tony. He’s just having a breakdown and I don’t know what to do. You can stay in India, don’t skip your meetings-”

“Too late,” he heard Happy yell, probably from across the room, “he already made me call the jet.” Steve rolled his eyes.

“Tony, what do I do with the kid?” 

“Just get him back to the tower, and I’ll see him in a couple of hours.”

“See you then.” Steve hung up the phone and turned back to the kid.

“Hey Pete, how about we go back-” he stopped suddenly. “Peter?”

Peter was nowhere to be found.


	5. Tony Stark/Natasha Romanov

The jet ride from India took far too long. It took a normal person 16 hours, and it took Tony and his jet twelve. Twelve hours from the time he knew his kid was gone to the time he could start looking for him. Twelve hours during which Peter could have died, or been attacked, or-  
No. He wouldn’t let himself think that way. His kid was alive. He just had to find him.

As soon as the jet was on the ground, Tony was off and running- straight into Captain America.

“Cap, what the fuck are you doing here, shouldn’t you be looking for Peter?” Steve put his hands on Tony’s shoulders.

“Breathe, Tony. I found him. He’s inside.” Tony immediately broke away from the Captain and began to storm inside before Steve caught him again.

“Steve, what the fuck?”

“You need to calm down before you go in there. What are you even going to say to him?” Tony paused for a second.

“I… I honestly have no idea.” Tony let out an exasperated sigh, running his hand through his hair. “Oh my God, Steve, my kid is in there having a mental breakdown and I have no idea what to do!” Tony began to hyperventilate as panic ran through him. “Steve, I can’t feel my arms, Steve-”

“Relax. Just breathe. In and out. There you go.” Steve put his hands on Tony’s shoulders, trying to calm the panicking man. 

xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx

Natasha had just returned from sparring with James when she heard sobbing coming from down the hall. Momentarily confused, as she thought nobody lived down the hall, she drew one of her guns and walked down the hallway.

As she turned the corner into the source of the sobbing, she lowered her weapon slightly to see a crying Peter, curled up in the corner. She quickly discarded her weapon and ran to crouch by the kid.

“Peter, are you okay?” He opened his mouth to speak but all that he could manage was a slight squeak followed by a shaking inhale and a gasp when he couldn’t get enough air. “Okay kid, breathe.” She put his hand on her own heart. “Do you feel that? That’s my heartbeat. Breathe in, and out. There you go.” She guided Peter down slowly until his gasping sobs turned to quiet tears. She tried to shift to sit against the wall next to him, but his arms shot out to grab her.

“Please don’t go,” he whispered.

“Shh, kid, I’m right here. I’m just adjusting. See?” She finally found a comfortable position against the wall, and he leaned into her. They sat in silence for several minutes before Peter finally spoke.

“Natasha?” She hummed in affirmation in his hair, pressing a light kiss to his head. “I think something’s wrong with me.”

xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx

Tony slammed the door to Peter’s room open- on accident, as he vehemently insisted to Natasha when she yelled at him after the fact- to see his- the- kid sleeping peacefully on the bed as Natasha stroked his hair. 

“What happened?” he asked quietly as he approached the bed, taking a seat on Peter’s other side.

“Panic attack,” she said in a whisper. Tony hung his head.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Just talk to him, Tony. Seriously. He needs you.” They both looked down as Peter stirred awake.

“Mr. Stark?” he slurred sleepily as Tony smiled.

“Go to sleep, kid.” Peter snuggled up to Tony slightly as his eyelids drooped again. “I’m right here.”


	6. Bruce Banner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce and Peter have a talk.

Peter was gone the next morning before Tony woke up. Panicking for a second, he ordered FRIDAY to lock down the tower.

“Sir, Peter isn’t leaving. He’s downstairs with the jolly green giant.” Tony sighed in relief and ran his hands through his hair. “May I suggest refraining from calling Dr. Banner the Jolly Green Giant?” 

“Shut up, FRI.” Tony waved his hand as if to dismiss his virtual assistant and got up from the bed. He walked out into the hallway, intending to go down to see Peter, when he ran into Natasha.

“I know what you’re doing, Stark,” she said.

“What?”  
“He’s opening up to Bruce. You don’t have to go down there.”

“But last night-”

“Yes, he needs you. But he needs other people too.”

xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx

When Peter walked into the lab, Bruce was just sitting there, working on… something. Peter wasn’t really sure what it was. He stood in the doorway for about five minutes before he was acknowledged.

“Jesus Christ Pete, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Bruce tried to joke before he noticed that Peter had a serious look on his face. “Hey kid, what’s wrong?” He patted the seat next to him, indicating that Peter should sit down, but the kid remained still, standing at the door and staring at his feet. “Kid?”

“There’s something wrong with me,” he muttered, almost silently.

“Kid, you have to speak up.”

“There’s something wrong with me,” he repeated, not really louder, but Bruce heard him nonetheless. He set down his tools and wheeled closer to Peter.

“Why would you think that?”

“I….” he trailed off slowly, not really knowing what to say, before deciding to raise his sleeve to show Bruce what he had done. Bruce grabbed his wrist gently, examining the cuts before pulling him into a crushing hug.

“Peter, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.” They sat for a few minutes before Peter pulled back, sniffling. 

“Thank you,” he whispered. Bruce shook his head.

“No problem, kid.” He sat in silence for a moment before Peter got up and started to leave. “Hey Pete?”

“Yeah?” he responded, turning around.

“You’ve got to talk to Tony.”

“How on Earth would I even start doing that? He has no idea what I’m going through.” Bruce looked at Peter sadly. “Oh shit, does he?”

“Peter…. Tony’s been through a lot more than most people realize. His father abused him. His mother did nothing. He nearly died in space. He didn’t sleep for months after the battle of New York. He sees a therapist every-”

“Okay okay I get it. He’s crazy like I am.” Peter shook his head. “How does any of this help me?”

“Neither one of you are crazy- well, Tony may be a little bit,” Bruce chuckled briefly before turning solemn again. “But both of you have your own demons that you need to work out. And maybe you can help one another.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update! Next chapter, there will be a surprise character. Please let me know what you think!


	7. Harley Keener

Harley hadn’t seen Tony in years. They both got busy- Harley with his normal life, and Tony with the whole “billionaire-playboy-philanthropist” thing that he did all the time. Life had turned hectic for the both of them, but Harley finally found the time to reconnect with the man who he saved all those years ago. 

Tony snapped his head up when he heard the familiar voice call his name, and immediately ran over to hug his savior. When they finally broke apart, Tony with tears in his eyes, he took a moment to make sure that his son was real.

“How have you been, Harley?” he asked, a smiling splitting his face. 

“I’ve been fine, Tony. How about you? How’s the world saving thing going?” Tony laughed.

“You’re still here, aren’t you?” 

“Must be doing a pretty good job then.” Tony laughed and motioned for the boy to follow him into the kitchen for coffee. “You’ve been laying low since Germany, huh?” Tony froze.

“I didn’t know you knew about that,” he whispered. Harley laughed.

“How do you expect me not to? It was all over the news last summer.” The younger boy’s smile faded quickly as he approached Tony. “Fighting against Captain Rogers must have been hard for you,” he said sincerely. Tony shook his head and walked away, mumbling something about having work to do.

And that’s why, twenty minutes later, Peter walked in to find Harley sitting at the island, confused and lost in thought.

“Can I help you?” Peter asked, causing Harley’s head to pick up.

“I see he adopted another one,” Harley quipped. 

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m Harley Keener. I saved Tony’s ass when I was younger. Who are you?”

“I’m Peter Parker…” Peter trailed off, not quite sure whether or not to broach the Spider-Man subject. 

“Spider-Man, I assume?” Peter was taken aback by Harley’s bluntness.

“How-?”

“Well, I keep pretty close tabs on what happens around here. I know that about a year and a half ago, there was a very young boy that went to Germany with the Avengers. Fast forward, here you are, obviously very close to Tony since you’re on his personal floor.” Harley paused. “Why are you on his personal floor?”

“We always work in the lab when I come over, but he’s not coming down for some reason.” Harley looked down.

“That may be my fault. I mentioned the time he tried to murder Captain Rogers.” Peter nodded.

“That is a particularly sore spot with Mr. Stark. Hey FRI?” Peter called, looking up at the ceiling.

“Yes, Spider baby?” Harley tried to stifle a laugh, prompting Peter to shoot the older boy a death glare.

“My name is Peter. And is Mr. Stark okay?”

“No self-destructive tendencies detected. I’d advise that you leave him alone for now. 

“Self-destructive tendencies?” Harley asked as Peter turned to face him again. Peter shrugged, not knowing whether or not he should disclose what little he knew about the man.

“Beats me,” he said, searching for a way to change the subject. “So, who the fuck are you?”

“I told you, the kid who saved Mr. Stark’s ass when I was younger.”

“That’s not what I meant. Who is Harley Keener? What are his likes and dislikes, his goals in life, etc.?” Harley smiled.

“Well, I’m from Tennessee, but I moved to New York for school. I start at Columbia in the fall, but I wanted to get the lay of the land first, which is why I came up now. I’m done with all my high school coursework, so I’m taking college classes through dual enrollment and I elected to take online-only classes to get the full New York experience and get used to the city first. I want to do something with robots. I’m not sure if I want to build them or just figure out ways to use them, but Tony had some strings at Columbia and they committed to me when I was still a junior.”

“Wow, that’s really cool,” Peter said, ignoring the way his heart fluttered a bit just listening to him talk. “I’m hoping to go to MIT, because I want to work with robots too, but Columbia or NYU would let me be closer to Mr. Stark.”

“You want to be close to that loser?” Peter’s face fell as Harley spoke.

“He’s not a loser,” he muttered. Harley felt a pang in his chest as he moved to lay his hand over Peter’s. “He’s the closest thing to a real family I’ve had in years.”

“Hey, I was just joking. He’s not a loser. I know that.” Harley moved around the island to sit closer to Peter. “You know, shortly after I saved his ass, I came home and found a garage full of new robotics equipment. Like, high-tech stuff. I was 11. I didn’t know what to do with it, and my parents ended up giving a lot of it away because they were worried that I’d somehow make a bomb with it-” Peter stifled a laugh at that.

“You were 11! Why would they think you would make a bomb?”

“Well, it was Iron Man. It’s not like the Avengers had the cleanest record even before Germany.” Peter nodded. “I think they were more worried about being associated with him than they were worried about me actually, you know, blowing up the entire world.”

“Makes sense.” They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment before a voice pinged from above.

“Robot boy, Mr. Stark is requesting your presence in his lab.” 

“Robot boy?” Peter asked in confusion.

“That’s his name for me.” Harley placed his palms on the counter as he sighed and pushed himself away from his seat. “I’ll see you later, spider-baby?” Peter laughed and chucked a grape at him.

“See you.” Harley left, leaving Peter’s mind fuzzy and his heart racing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought this chapter was short- turns out, it's longer than the other chapters in this fic. Weird.
> 
> Sorry for not updating for almost a year. Enjoy.


End file.
